LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging Technology) reveals Mayan mega city hidden beneath Guatemalan jungle. (Credit: PACUNAM/Canuto & Auld-Thomas)
Category: Archeology
Exploring the past and learning about lost civilizations is a common pulp trope.
Teotihuacan, the ‘City of the Gods’
Photo of Teotihuacan taken in 1905
Continue reading “Teotihuacan, the ‘City of the Gods’”
Castillo in Chichen Itza
Catherwood engraving of Castillo, from the 1841 “Incidents of Travel in Central America”
Below is a site plan for Chichen Itza – Yucatan, Mexico. Castello (or Pyramid of Kukulcan) is located towards the center.
Aztec’s tower of human skulls
A tower of human skulls unearthed beneath the heart of Mexico City has raised new questions about the culture of sacrifice in the Aztec Empire after crania of women and children surfaced among the hundreds embedded in the forbidding structure.
Skulls are seen at a site where more than 650 skulls caked in lime and thousands of fragments were found in the cylindrical edifice near Templo Mayor, one of the main temples in the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan, which later became Mexico City, Mexico June 30, 2017. REUTERS/Henry Romero
Guatemalan Mushroom Men
A few of the estimated two hundred mushroom stones that escaped destruction , despite the concerte3d efforts of misdirected Catholic missionaries. The smaller mushroom stones are the ones found with metates, which were presumably used for grinding the sacraments prior to used (Borhegi 1961).
Chroniclers of the Spanish Conquest reported the ritual use of hallucinogenic mushrooms among the Aztecs. They called their sacred mushroom Teonanacatl, which means “Gods flesh” “Teo” meaning god in the Aztec language.
Ruiz de Alarcon reported in the early 1600s that the indigenous peoples believed that their sacred plants were gods, and described a “tawny-colored mushroom made into a drink from its pressed-out juices”.
According to testimony recorded in 1554 in the Colonial document entitled El Titulo de Totonicapan, the Quiché Maya revered mushroom stones as symbols of power and rulership, and before them they performed rituals (of blood sacrifice)to pierce and cut up their bodies. (Sachse, 2001, 186).
The Stone Head Of Guatemala
In the 1950s, in the jungles of Guatemala, a colossal stone head was discovered. The face had unusual features, such as thin lips and a large nose, and was found directed up at the sky. The features resembled a Caucasian man, which did not fit with any other art works of the time, as contact with Caucasians would have been nonexistent.
Years after its original discovery, it was found destroyed by Dr. Oscar Padilla, a doctor of philosophy and an ancient history enthusiast. He claimed that the head had been destroyed by anti-government rebels, who used it as target practice. The story of the stone head was recently picked up again by the filmmakers behind the documentary Revelations of the Mayans: 2012 and Beyond, who claimed that the photograph proved that extraterrestrials had contacted past civilizations.
During the filming of this documentary, a Guatemalan archaeologist, Hector E. Majia, was interviewed. He stated: “I certify that this monument presents no characteristics of Maya, Nahuatl, Olmec or any other pre-Hispanic civilization. It was created by an extraordinary and superior civilization with awesome knowledge of which there is no record of existence on this planet.”
The region the head was found in is famous for stone heads, but none resemble in any way the one found by Dr. Padilla. The head has raised many questions as to why it is there and who exactly built it. It is likely that we will never know the answers.
(Original Article found here: http://listverse.com/2017/04/02/10-unexplained-mysteries-of-the-jungle/ )
